House - Day 37

Wow.  Has it already been so long since I last posted about the house??

The house is really coming along.  I haven't posted much on it lately, because a lot of the progress has been going on on the inside lately.  But now, three of the outside walls are sided, and the inside is competely dry walled!  They are still giving us the date of July 15th, but we are holding out hope that it could be sooner (they have told us that it could very likely be sooner, but don't want to make any promises).

Lots of pictures today...

Siding 

Standing in the door of the mudroom, looking into the kitchen / living room.

Opposite angle...standing in the living room, looking into the kitchen, with the door to the mudroom  in the back.

Miley standing in her room.

Landon's room...

Master bedroom...

Miley and Cameron standing in the loft (playroom).  Door to the 4th bedroom in the back.

Front door on left, office in front of me, coat closet, and living room to the right.

Stairs going up (hi, Landon!).

Can't wait for everything to start going in on the inside!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was wonderful this year, as always.  Cameron let me sleep in (although he is so awesome, and lets me sleep in all the time on the weekends!  What a guy!), and made me crepes with strawberries, bananas, cream cheese, and cinnamon sugar on them for breakfast.  Miley decorated a cute little card for me, and Cameron gave me a new full length mirro for our room at the new house. 

Cameron and Don also took on dinner duty for the night, and let Cindy and I relax - well, to be honest, I don't usually do a whole lot for Sunday dinners anyway, because we always go to Don and Cindy's, but it was still great!  :) 

But the best part of Mother's Day?  Just getting to love on these two little munchkins.  I feel so blessed to be the mom of Miley and Landon, and feel like they teach me so much more than I teach them.  I just love these kids to pieces (even when they won't smile for a picture for me...).

Oh there we go...  :)

And of course, I can't talk about Mother's Day without giving mention to my own mom.  My mom is seriously the most selfless, generous, kindest woman I know.  She is one of my best friends.  She is such a good example to me, and sets the bar hight for the kind of mom I want to be.  I can only hope to be half the woman she is someday.

My MIL is also wonderful.  She is intelligent, and loving, and kind, and raised one heck of a son.  :)  I am sure lucky to have these two women in my life.    

Miley's First Visit to Camp Smile!

Miley went to the dentist for the first time today!

I was expecting it to be a little bit of a challenge, because to say that Miley loathes doesn't like doctors is a bit of an understatement.  We have been talking about it to her for about a week, telling her that they were just going to count her teeth, and it wasn't the same as a doctor.  I think she was actually pretty excited about it, the whole morning she was asking when we would get to go to the dentist, and she was practically running to get there when we go to the building...

But as soon as we walked in the office, she started freaking out and saying she wanted to go home.  The staff there was so great...when we came in, they knew immediately who we were (we were the only ones in the office, but still...).  One of the dental assitants came out and sat on the floor with Miley, and just started talking to her and showing her some books, trying to get her comfortable with her.

They took us back, and Miley was still pretty freaked out, so she stayed on my lap the whole time (so no cut epictures of her sitting in the big chair...bummer!).  They showed her all the tools, and let her touch them, and let her play with a fish puppet with teeth and a toothbrush.  She was much more comfortable with everything at this point, and even opened her mouth for the dentist to "count" her teeth.  I was shocked she did this, because she still fights us on brushing her teeth every night!  However, when the dentist wanted to brush some "vitamins" on her teeth, Miley wanted nothing to do with it.  But they said that was OK, and all they really wanted was for ehr to get kind of familiar with the office, and that we could do that at her next appointment in 6 months. 

Miley was thrilled to get her little bag with a new toothbrush, and floss, and a little mirror to look in her mouth.  She also thought it was pretty fun to play on the bus play structure in the waiting room... 

Overall, I don't think it was too traumatic of an experience for Miley.

And the good news??  No cavities!  Hopefully her next appointment is even better!

In Our Spare Time...

Even though we were running around like crazy the whole time we had company in town, we did actually have a little bit of down time!

On Tuesday, my parents last day here, we actually stayed in Maple Grove the whole day - a first for the whole trip!  We stayed plenty busy again though, going to Bed Bath and Beyond again, Babies R Us, Byerly's, DSW, and Lowes.  And this was our "laid back" day.  :)

In between all of our outings, there was lots of time to play around the apartment, and enjoy some Landon-holding (my mom was excited to get to hold him a lot this time, since she didn't get to hold him very much when she was up here last and was sick!).

Playing Candyland.

Grammy playing under the table, and telling Miley the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears...

Landon and Papa had lots of good chats...

Miley thought it was fun to jump on the bed while we were getting sheets off and washed...watch out, Landon!

Again, the time went by too fast (it always does when you are having fun!) and my parents had to head back home on Wednesday.  We were sad to see them go, but glad that we got to pack in so much fun while they were here!  We are so glad that my parents are now retired, and that they have been able to come up and see us so mcuh this year already!  Now we just have to convince them to come up again when the house is done...  :)

Visit To the General and More Shopping!

Since we had a couple extra days with my parents, we figured we better just run them into the ground and keep dragging them all over the city!

On Monday, we went down to visit Cameron at General Mills and to have lunch with him.  It may not sound too exciting to visit a big corporation, but the General Mills campus is almost like a museum, with all of the fun decorations they have all over.  My mom kept saying while we were there, "This is just like the companies you see in movies, but you don't think they really exist!"  It was also great to be able to go down and see Cameron, because Miley was a BEAR that morning (probably from all the missing naps and late bedtimes that she had had lately!), and she was really excited to see her dad, and we were all relieved to get a little bit of a break.  :)

Cameron's floor...

The elevators on the cereal floor...

The General Mills brands...

To top off our day, Cameron came home a little early, and my mom and dad and I were able to go down to the Mall of America and Ikea for the evening.  We didn't spend a ton of time in either place, but we got to stop at some stores that aren't as accessible to my parents in Wyoming (The American Girl Store, H&M, and the Apple Store).  We didn't do too much damage at the mall, or Ikea, but it was fun to go and look, and actually have it be kind of relaxing, instead of how it usually is trying to chase kids around.  Thanks Cameron, for letting us go kid-free!  :)

Landon's Blessing Weekend

Saturday and Sunday were very busy, with lots of visitors here for Landon's blessing. 

On Saturday morning, we and my parents spent the morning buying all the food that we would need for our little get together following church on Sunday.  Once we got all the "business" taken care of, Cameron was off to the airport to pick up his friend, Chris, and his wife, Heather.  They were able to come in for just a really short period of time, but we were so excited that they made the effort to come up and be with us!  Since Cameron was preoccupied with airport pickups, and Mall of America stops (and getting into fights in the parking lot...ask hm if you want the full story!), we took the kids back home for naps.  Papa was nice enough to stay home with Miley, while my mom and I took the time to do a little bit more shopping with Landon in tow.  It was a pretty successful run, hitting up Home Goods, Old Navy, and Bed Bath and Beyond (household items are pretty fun to shop for these days...) :).

Once we got back from our shopping trip, everyone had made it back to our apartment...Cameron, Chris and Heather, Cameron's parents, and us.  We decided that it would be a good time to do dinner, so we took everyone to Eddington's (a Minnesota soup place that is sooo yummy!).  It was so fun having everyone together, so much so that I didn't take pictures the whole day (in my defense, I told myself that I was going to be much better about taking pictures while everyone was up here, and for the most part I was...I just kind of left out Saturday!).

On Sunday, we got to bless Landon...the reason everyone was up here this weekend!  It was so nice to have our family and lots of friends come to support us (Chris and Heather, Katie and Tyler, Cecia and Cameron).  We took most of our pictures at Don and Cindy's afterwards, so we weren't all dressed up, but we ate lots of good food (A BIG THANKS to my mom and dad who helped a lot with sandwiches, salads, and desserts!), and everyone just got to enjoy one another's company.

In true Wendy fashion, I didn't get a picture of my mom and dad with Landon...I am kicking myself for that one!  But here are plenty of others from Sunday...

Landon in his blessing outfit from his Aunt Amy, and on his blanket from Grandma Clark.

Dig in!

Miley was thrilled to have little Jack around...

Too busy playing to have dinner, but she is never too busy for a brownie!

Best friends since third grade, Cameron and Chris.

Acting nice (Chris and Heather, me and Cam, Cecia and Cameron 2.0)  :)

A little more realistic??

Grandma and Grandpa Clark

Miley didn't want anything to do with pictures...so just Cameron, me and Landon.

The time went by too fast, and Chris and Heather, and Cameron's parents both had to leave Monday.  We wish they all could have stayed longer, but we were so glad to have them up for the time that they were here...

We were lucky enough to get to have my parents for a couple extra days so we could get a little more fun in...  :) 

Company Coming to Town

For a few weeks now, we have planned on having Landon's baby blessing on May 1st.  We have been looking forward to this for a while, because it was an excuse to have both sets of parents come up, and Cameron's best friend from growing up was able to make it as well.  We don't get to see all of our loved ones as much as we would like to, so we were very excited to have so many people come to share in this occasion with us!

My parents arrived on Thursday afternoon, April 28th.  We took it easy that day, because they were a little worn out from all the traveling.  I made dinner that night, and we just got to visit and relax, and of course, Miley and Landon were excited to see their Grammy and Papa again!  We made a lot of plans for while they were here, because the last time they were up, after Landon was born, we didn't get to go out and do much.

Friday, we took it easy in the morning again, but Cameron came home from work early that day because his parents flew in early that afternoon.  While we were waiting for them to come over, my mom and I decided to take advantage of Cameron being home to watch the kids, while we ran to the mall to do a little bit of shopping (you will find that shopping is a common theme when I get together with my family). 

*Sidenote...While shopping, we went to the Gap, and they let us know about a contest that was going on - you could enter every day in April, and there was a winner every day for every store to win an employee discount for a year (50% off full price, 10% off sale).  Long story short, I entered that night, figuring it was a long shot, and *lo and behold* the next morning I had an e-mail telling me I had won!  Woo hoo!  50% off at Gap for a year??  Yes, please!*

Anyway, we got back from shopping, and Cameron's parents had made it to our place, and got to see the kiddos and chat for a while.  Landon was sure happy to have so many people around, and was putting on a show!

Cameron's parents planned on spending the evening with Don's family, because this was the last time they were going to see them before they left for India.  Before they went over there, we took both them and my parents over to our house to walk through it.  Everyone had a lot of fun walking through, and seeing just where all the rooms would be and everything.

Since we had the evening free with my folks, we decided to head down to a Malaysian restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.  My family lived in Malaysia for a year in 1996, and have never really found food exactly like we had there.  Well, Cameron and I found one, and we knew we had to take my parents there while they were in town.  We ordered a ton of food - roti canai, chicken satay with peanut sauce, mee hoon, red curry chicken, and mango chicken.  Everyone enjoyed the food, (even Miley, although her eating technique was perhaps a little unconventional) and both kids were extrememly well behaved (thanks in part to "Tangled" on the iPod...thank goodness for technology!).  It was one of the most pleasant eating-out experiences we have had with Miley in tow.

Miley with her mango chicken, happily watching "Tangled."

Landon, a little stunned from the camera flash!

After the yummy dinner, we took our parents to Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River to show them the sights.  It was pretty chilly outside, and we didn't have our stroller with us, but that didn't stop us from having fun anyway, and didn't stop Miley from walking barefoot along the bridge.  Yup...we are THOSE parents!  Let's just say, we like to pick our battles.  :)

Notice those little bare feet??

Now that's teamwork!

There was no rest for the weary this weekend...we just kept going and going and going.  More later...